Ismail Shabazz, right, shakes hands with his attorney, Michael Sussman, on Tuesday in the second-floor courtroom of the Ulster County Courthouse in Kingston, N.Y.
Tania Barricklo — Daily Freeman

KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Ismail Shabazz, the civil rights activist who pleaded guilty in October to one count of attempted criminal sale of a weapon, asked to withdraw his plea on Tuesday.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard McNally, who was to sentence Shabazz Tuesday morning in Ulster County Court, instructed that the request be made in a formal application. That application will be heard in court at 2 p.m. Jan. 17.

If Shabazz, 61, is allowed to wirthdraw his plea, he will stand trial on the 16-count indictment against him for allegedly selling illegal weapons to undercover FBI agents and could be sentenced to about 35 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

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Under the deal in which Shabazz pleaded guilty three months ago, he was to receive a two-year prison sentence and three years of post-release supervision.

Shabazz’s attorney, civil rights lawyer Michael Sussman, was in court with Shabazz on Tuesday but has asked to be removed from the case. Shabazz declined to comment after Tuesday’s proceeding.

There was no immediate word on who will represent Shabazz going forward.

“They know I’m taking a big chance,” he told MidHudsonNews. “ ... [But] I’d rather fight and take the chance to convince the jury that I’m not that type of person.”

A handful of Shabazz supporters attended Tuesday’s court proceeding. One of them, JoAnne Steele, said he was being “ramrodded.”

In court in October, Shabazz admitted that, over the course of about a year, he sold undercover agents six illegal weapons — including handguns, an assault rife and a sawed-off shotgun — from his home at 80 Prospect St. in Midtown Kingston.

He said in October that all of the weapons were in working condition and agreed he would not prevail with an entrapment defense at trial. Shabazz and his supporters had claimed entrapment since his arrest.

Sussman said in October that Shabazz was trying “to get guns off the streets of Kingston,” though he acknowledged the sale of illegal weapons “clouded the purpose he was attempting to achieve.”

Shabazz said the federal agents told Shabazz the guns were going to Africa “to aid in a liberation struggle there,” but the attorney conceded that Shabazz’s “noble” intent did not “legalize either the sale or possession of weapons.”

Ulster County Judge Donald A. Williams recused himself from the case in October 2015 due to his “lengthy” association with Shabazz — both prosecuting Shabazz as Ulster County district attorney and chief assistant district attorney and also as part of a group of community leaders — and the office of Ulster County District Attorney Holley Carnright was removed from the case because he had represented Shabazz on several occasions while working a public defender.

Shabazz was arrested in the weapons case in June 2015 and initially was charged with six counts of selling weapons to an FBI informant, nine counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of endangering the welfare of a child during the alleged sale of one illegal weapon.

He’s been free on bail since about a month after his arrest.

Carnright said at the time of Shabazz’s arrest that Shabazz became a person of interest in a federal investigation in 2013 when information was developed that he had recruited members of the Bloods street gang into the New Black Panthers Party in Kingston and was advocating violence against police officers. He said federal agents intercepted a conversation about training members of the New Black Panthers in how to disarm police officers and use the firearms in question against them.

Shabazz has served as chairman of the Kingston chapter of Black Panthers for Justice and president and vice president of the Ulster County Chapter of the NAACP. He has been a frequent critic of police and has participated in local demonstrations regarding attacks on black suspects by white officers in other cities.

Shabazz has a criminal history that includes convictions on numerous misdemeanor counts. He told the Freeman in a 2013 interview that he turned to crime around age 19 but never was convicted of a felony. His criminal history shows felony arrests.

About the Author

Paul Kirby is a reporter for the Freeman, covering Kingston politics. He has been at the Freeman since August 1996. Reach the author at pkirby@freemanonline.com
or follow Paul on Twitter: @PaulatFreeman.